Defects in electrical connections, e.g. faulty connections between a leadframe and bond wires are not readily detectable by conventional X-ray, Automatic Test Equipment ATE testing, and existing vector-less testing measuring devices. X-ray detection systems for faulty electrical connections suffer from low detection capability and very slow though-put. Therefore many faulty connections remain unidentified, and furthermore, only a sample selection of electrical connections can be tested. X-ray detection systems are mainly used for simple wire bond packages and the test is based on random sampling of electrical connections. X-ray inspections are increasingly complex and expensive for high pin count packages, e.g. QFP80 and above.
Current ATE testing systems are unable to detect “near-short” wires. “Near-short” wires may refer to wires which may not be in direct physical contact with each other, however may be in very close proximity to each other. “Near-short” wires which are too close to each other may also result in electrical failure even though they are not physically in contact each other. Examples of anomalies in interconnections include near short wires, near short leads, vertically displaced wires, vertically sagging wires, sweep wires and horizontally displaced wires. The detection of such anomalies using stand-alone electrical testing is not possible with current testing methods.